Learning Java - Where to go next?

I think I did a post like this a while back, but now I know some basic Java. I learned it from a before school club at my school - it was pretty fun. However, it is coming to an end next week and I have learned all the topics that the club would cover.

My question is to any Java programmers or anyone with Java programming experience. Where do I go next? I have learned the different type of variables, while and for loops, random number generation with java.util.Random, and getting user input with java.util.Scanner.

Our final project was to make a simple number guessing game that incorporates all of what I have learned. You could take a look at the link. Just go to the game.java file and run java game in terminal since its already compiled.

My recommendation is to find something that interests you and make it. I never did any proper lessons to learn Java and just learnt it whilst trying to make Bukkit plugins (Not recommend ). But once you have a good grasp of the basics, you just need to use them and then extend yourself.

And I use the term very 'wide'; I mean to gain the ability to check up the Javadoc to find whatever feature it is you're after, how to comply to set out standards by that framework, and in general how to actually use it. Some frameworks can be quite extensive and rough to get into, even though they all roughly share a specific goal.

What framework? Yeah, that's a bit up to you. I'm not specifically talking about native Java frameworks such as J2EE (but it helps too I guess) but also 3rd party stuff. For example: my all time favorite Java IDE (Netbeans) isn't merely an editor but a whole framework as well. They take "open source" to the next level (IMO) and allow you to create "netbeans projects" which allow you to use the whole environment (panels, editors, menus, the works) as a starting ground and then use that to build your own programs.

The only requirement, you may have guessed it, is that you need to comply to their way of thinking. In other words: use the framework as it was intended.

I'd start small though. A whole framework might be a little rough (then again, if you made GUI's and came into contact with Swing you already got some taste of it I guess. But heck; even picking up a 3rd party library and implementing that to work in your own programs could help (I guess).

Ha, takes me back to my first Java IRC bot I made. Using (iirc) Pircbot; an IRC library for Java.

My recommendation is to find something that interests you and make it. I never did any proper lessons to learn Java and just learnt it whilst trying to make Bukkit plugins (Not recommend ). But once you have a good grasp of the basics, you just need to use them and then extend yourself.